When we installed the line lock setup on this 1987 Buick Grand National, we apparently weren’t careful enough to protect the included bracket that the solenoid sits on, which is painted black.
Brake fluid ended up getting onto it, and of course, as most minerals do to painted surfaces, it pulled the paint right off.
So while we’re working in the engine compartment, it’s time to remedy that.
This is part of our “Buick Grand National Engine Bay Cleanup.”
(a multi-part series we’re doing for assorted things under the hood)
(eventually the entire thing will look as pretty as the rest of the Turbo Buick does)
Another “not too hard to do” task.
The solenoid needs to be removed from its perch (2 bolts/nuts hold it onto the bracket), then the bracket needs to come off the top of the power steering bracket where it’s mounted.
[the 2 bolts that hold the power steering reservoir onto the PS bracket, need to be loosened, as the LL bracket gets wedged between the PS reservoir and the PS bracket using those 2 bolts. That’s how the LL bracket is totally mounted in place]
Since part of the paint still remains, and we wanted a clean surface to start with, we dumped more brake fluid on it and let it sit for a few moments.
Logic tells us if the fluid took the first part of the paint off, it should take the rest of it as well.
Which it did, after a quick burst of running a brush over it.
A little scrubbing, a fast soap it up and rinse job (to take the brake fluid off), dry it off, rough it up a bit with sandpaper so the new primer and paint will stick, and voila, the bracket is done.
We did spray a coat of etching primer onto it, to give it a good surface to begin with.
[should help keep the paint nice since this area is exposed to the outdoors]
Luckily we had all of these things sitting on a shelf, so this was another no-cost job we performed.
5 minutes to remove bracket, 5 minutes to remove old paint, 15 minutes to prime (14 of which was drying time), 1 hour to paint (with 59 minutes drying time), and 5 minutes to reinstall.
During the drying time portion of this job, we wrote up this story (and formatted it onto this website), so no wasted time in between.
An hour and a half and something else is now completed inside our engine bay.
It’s getting there, little by little…
[one quick note about when we first installed the solenoid. It utilizes 2 wires to energize, and we thought it was a clever idea at the time to run them thru the hole in this bracket. Turns out, if you ever have to remove this bracket, you’ll need to cut those wires to get the bracket off! Ugg. Snip, snip, reattach with butt connectors… on with the day…]
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